


Growing Up Sucks Prologue

by MoonSilverSprite



Category: Time Warp Trio
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-16
Updated: 2019-04-16
Packaged: 2020-01-15 02:07:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18489082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoonSilverSprite/pseuds/MoonSilverSprite
Summary: A short prologue before the big finale of my 'Growing Up Sucks' works.





	Growing Up Sucks Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is only a short chapter I wrote before getting on to my main story. I'm not going to rush anything, but I will do my utmost to get the story up by the end of April or beginning of May.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this story and remember to tell me what you think.

**Himalayas, 1979**

Jack sat by the stone slab as he grumbled to himself. Was it really such a good idea to have run away? He was only eleven years old. Besides, he didn’t know where the nearest village was. He’d end up freezing to death if he wasn’t careful. It was better than the middle of a desert, sure, but he wasn't entirely sure by how much.

That Book was his. He was the older child, it was rightfully his! And now, his little brother had all the power and didn't have a clue on how to wield it! Jack let out another groan, watching the cold air in front of himself. He didn't know how this could get worse.

Then the portal appeared next to him. Jack turned his head to take a closer look. A tall man with mousy brown hair and a nasty-looking scar running down his cheek came out, smiling at him. This must be a Time Agent, Jack guessed.

“What do you want?” he snapped at them.

The Time Agent didn’t react. Jack stood up and walked over to the portal cautiously. “You’re here to bring me back, aren’t you?” he asked, surprised.

The man shook his head. “I am Andrew, child.”

“I’m not a child!” Jack snapped, “I’m eleven years old!”

The man grunted. “When I was your age, I was scaling this very mountain. You have heard of me, haven’t you?”

“Yeah,” Jack’s eyes widened as he remembered, “you left three years ago.”

“And what a productive three years those have been,” Andrew smiled, “The Time Agency doesn’t appreciate us, Jack. They’re boring and stuffy and annoying. They don’t teach you and your brother the best tricks. How to freeze time. How to imprison someone inside a bubble. How to live outside of time.”

Jack frowned. Andrew seemed genuine. And his only other option was dying outside in the snow. “All right,” Jack straightened up, “what do you want?”

Andrew nodded. “That’s the ticket, Jack. I believe that we can help each other.”

**Time Agency, 1983**

Joseph was taking meditation with Agent Kristopher in the healing room. He liked the shape of this place; it looked just like an ancient Chinese temple on the inside. The others – Connie, Hailey, Lottie and Daisy – were also in here, meditating at the five corners of the room as Agent Kristopher sat in the middle. The musical instruments hovered in mid-air as magic played them.

Jack stood outside and peeked through the crack in the door. He felt a lump in his throat as he saw how grown up his brother was.

No. Jack needed to focus on the task at hand.

He saw Hedgewing in the Warp Wizard’s room, sitting on a bright green rug. Crystal balls of various sizes were floating around the room. Pointed crystals lay underneath the window. Clumps of more crystals, of every colour of the rainbow, were scattered throughout the room. Hedgewing sat in the centre of the room, cross-legged and eyes closed, deep in thought. A dark green bottle sat on the nearby cabinet, half-full.

Jack hadn’t been inside Hedgewing’s bedroom before. He had expected it to be filled with dead owls and irritatingly loud clocks. While this was the case, the clocks were all silent even though they were ticking. The crystals, mirrors and potion seemed to make everything quite eerie.

Jack held the katana up, wondering if he was ready to do this. No, he had to. Hedgewing hadn’t taught him anything useful. He had taken the Book from Jack and given it to his pathetic brother.

Hedgewing deserved this.

Jack left the heavy katana in the man’s body. He was walking out through to the mountain outside when he heard someone call his name.

Turning, Jack noticed Daisy by the shallow part of the pool. Her silly broom was now glowing and Jack supposed that that was now her time-travelling implement.

Jack pointed at the building. “You might want to check Hedgewing. I think he’s…” Jack snickered, “Dead tired.”

Daisy was suspicious, holding onto the broom tightly with both hands as she shook her head slowly, eyes wide. Then she ran back inside.

**Outside Time, 1983**

“You think that your brother will stop trying to find you?” Andrew asked, sitting on the wooden swing.

Jack was cross-legged on the carpet below, still in the same clothes he had worn when he visited the Time Agency. “Think so. My brother’s going to carry on looking for me for the rest of my life.”

“Well we have to stop him from looking.” Andrew groaned, placing his head in his hands.

“Don’t you think I’m trying to do that?” Jack snorted.

Then Andrew raised his head. “There must be some way to scare him off.”

“Brother dear doesn’t scare easily,” Jack folded his arms, then paused before he chuckled nastily, “But there might be an answer. I have a sister.”

“A sister?” Andrew asked, “Four years and you never mentioned her?”

Jack shrugged. “I don’t care about my family in Brooklyn any more. Besides, you never asked. She’s called Julie. And she’s the mother of the new Warp Wizard, in around twelve years’ time.”

“You really want to put her life on the line?” Andrew asked. When the boy nodded, eagerly, Andrew let out a cheer. “You are mad! I like it.” Andrew shook Jack’s hand, “We have a deal.”

**Brooklyn, 1983**

“Julie!” Joseph called out as he shut the door. He looked about as he hung his hat up on the rack.

“Julie? Sis?” he asked, slowly making his way through the empty house, holding his pen in his hand, just in case.

Then something heavy landed on his back, pinning him to the carpet.

“Hey! Get off!” he shouted, as a finger reached around and touched the space between his eyebrows. Instantly, he felt as if he were floating in midair. And not the way he did when the Time Agents played human Jenga or human Badminton.

He could see his sister Julie, curled up inside a golden birdcage that was barely big enough for her to fit. She was weeping loudly and she was filthy, her hair matted.

Then Joseph heard a man’s voice. “Don’t you even think of sending the Time Agents after me, boy. I can outdo them any day of the week. Of course, when you travel through time, that’s every day!” he gave a small chuckle. “I saw you on the mountainside. I wasn’t able to track you until I had some help from a little friend. Now, I’ll give back little moaner here,” a thin wooden stick reached through the bars and poked Julie on the small of her back, making her sit up quickly and grab onto the bars as the cage shook, “if I get firm confirmation from you that you won’t try and go after me. Meet me in your bedroom at 9pm.”

Joseph was about to say that he didn’t care about whatever Agent Andrew was doing when the vision faded. As he pushed himself up on his hands and knees, he realised that his attacker had stood up.

He heard a short sneer from behind him, before a voice sounded. “See you later, brother dear.”

Then Joseph was alone.

He was alone for hours in his bedroom, crying his eyes out. He told himself that he was thirteen years old and he shouldn’t cry any more. He didn’t even cry when Jack ran away, although Mom and Julie did. He didn’t even cry when the doctors said that Mom was getting sick.

Joseph wanted his sister back.

At nine o’clock precisely, a green light appeared in his room. He slowly looked up and saw the tall, thin man standing there. Julie was forced onto her knees. Her face and eyes were red and sore and her lip had started bleeding, but she seemed unharmed.

“I need your word,” Agent Andrew held the knife at Julie’s throat, “You know, your brother didn’t seem to care. Said that your sister would lead to his nephew and well – he doesn’t seem too angry.”

“I won’t say anything about you, Andrew.” Joseph curled his hands into fists and kept them by his sides.

“You know, Joseph,” Agent Andrew pushed the knife a little closer to Julie’s windpipe, causing her to cry silently, “I don’t quite believe you. Maybe not the throat, maybe…” He grabbed Julie’s hand and held the knife by her little finger, “Maybe I need a little more persuasion –“

“No!” Joseph shouted, holding his hand out, ready to attack if things got that bad. He didn’t even care that he was thirteen years old and Andrew was a grown man; he’d do it to save his sister.

“Sorry, Joseph,” Andrew started to dig the serrated blade ever so slowly into the finger, the other hand forcing down on Julie’s shoulder to hold her still, “I didn’t quite catch that.”

“I won’t tell the Time Agency about you!” His shout echoed around the room.

Andrew smiled and let go of Julie, who ran straight to Joseph and flung her arms around his neck, weeping into his shirt.

“I hope you keep your promise, boy,” Andrew snarled, placing the knife back inside his pinstripe suit, “Remember, I know where you live.”

When he disappeared, Julie whispered into her brother’s ear, “I hate Jack. I’m never going inside that stupid Time Agency again.”

Julie didn’t say much for the next couple of days. When she did speak, all she said was that when she had been squeezed inside the cage, she had seen a little boy practising magic nearby. He had only looked six, but he could make things hover in mid-air, such as kitchen knives and a wooden club. When he had seen her locked away, the little boy had smiled nastily and said that Julie should be lucky that she wasn't locked in 'the pit', like he had been when Andrew had gotten angry.

"It's got spikes," he had lisped, "and it's dark. You don't sit or squat, either. I used to shout at him before I went in there. I went in there three times. Now I only shout at the others. I don't shout at him."

Julie had asked about her brother, to which the little red-headed boy had answered, "Mr. Jack? Oh, I first saw him come out of that room, when I was very little. Daddy locked him in there several times since then. Daddy said it would make Mr. Jack like him. The pit's next to the bedroom, so I heard him scream at night sometimes. It used to bother me, but it doesn't anymore. Gary was locked in the pit when he didn't win a black belt. He just cried. I have to carry on with my magic now, or Daddy will beat him black and blue."

“I can’t believe that brute’s a father,” she sighed as Joseph held her close, “Those poor children.”

“But you’re okay, aren’t you?” Joseph asked her.

She nodded. “I already know my immediate future, Joseph. Jack showed me, when he pressed his finger between my eyes and showed me what he had seen, when he went into the future. I’m going to marry John Wilkins from tenth grade. He’s going to be an archaeologist while I stay at home and make children. Knowing your future isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be.”

She never spoke about time travel, the Time Agency or her oldest brother again. Not even to her husband. And when her children first started travelling, she would completely ignore it.

This was something close to her heart, but would never be a part of her life.

**Outside Time, 1987**

“You ready to live alone now permanently?” Andrew asked Jack.

Jack nodded, lifting up his enormous backpack. “I’m fine now, Andrew. I have to take on all those practices you mentioned. The stuff that takes years. Survey time, see which best suit my needs.”

“You’ve come a long way,” Andrew smirked, opening the portal behind him, “I’d better get my ones sorted. They’re going to go on their first mission tomorrow.”

“Yes.” Jack murmured, strumming his fingers on the backpack straps, “Tenth birthday…”

Remembering the incident where he had connected to 2033, if only briefly and it hadn’t been his physical body that went there, Mad Jack knew that it wouldn’t be that long before he next saw his brother dear. And his little nephew.

The door opened and then Mad Jack saw the three children standing there. Joshua, Gary and Faith were all wearing their white, old-fashioned pyjamas. They didn’t seem happy that their tenth birthday was tomorrow. They seemed very drab, bland and stiff. In fact, they were possibly the most joyless children that Mad Jack had ever met. He couldn’t recall them smiling once during the eight years he had spent on and off here. They’d be perfect for the boring Time Agency.

“Say goodbye, children.” Andrew snapped.

“Goodbye, Mr. Jack.” The three replied in unison, give half-hearted little waves.

Andrew then walked up the stairs and stood behind them. They all turned their heads to look up at their daddy. “Come on, time for sleep. It’s Pompeii tomorrow.”

As the three of them walked off, while Mad Jack first stepped foot into the lair underneath Mabel’s Diner.


End file.
